Barnsdale Gardens

All the recent television coverage that has been given to the Chelsea Flower Show these past few days has reminded me of a trip we took to Barnsdale Gardens last year. Anyone of my generation with an interest in gardening will surely have been brought up on a weekly dose of Gardener's World every Friday night. We decided that we should take a trip to see the gardens which have been, since Geoff Hamilton's death in 1996, open to the public. Situated to the east of Leicester in Rutland, they are worthy of a visit for nostalgia's sake if nothing more.


Geoff Hamilton Memorial

I always remember Geoff's gardening as being "real gardening" without the gimmicks that seems to be so prevalent today. Although there was a certain amount of construction work undertaken, it was always the planting that was of prime importance. Unfortunately we don't have enough space to recreate his borders, so we will just have to make do with visiting gardens such as these.


Barnsdale - Borders

I think that Geoff Hamilton was probably one of the first TV gardeners to make organic gardening trendy. The results have been carried forward into the current gardens which are the more enjoyable for following his lead.


Barnsdale - Butterflies

All forms of gardening were portrayed, including the more formal. He was always very capable of showing just how it should be done.


Barnsdale - Formal Garden

Some new gardens have been added that did not feature whilst he was alive, the Japanese Garden is one such. This feature is now probably more mature and developed.


Barnsdale - Japanese Garden

This I believe is also a new addition. It is not one I remember.


Barnsdale - Tin Man

For a good afternoon out, with a bite to eat in the tea room afterwards, and maybe one or two plants purchased in the adjacent garden center, then go along and rekindle a few memories.

Update

I have been keeping this photo blog now for about 6 months and encouragingly seem to have found what I consider to be quite a fair readership. A pretty quiet one however, as only occasionally do I get a comment. I know I am not entirely talking to myself and maybe what I have to say rarely requires any response, but please feel free to have your say.

The blog started around the same time that I made a complete break from full time working and was really an attempt to find something to do to fill in all the hours I now had at my disposal. Well, you may have noticed that the regularity of my postings has been falling off lately. This is because all those hours do not seem to be nearly so numerous now, and actually finding the time to spend at the keyboard is quite a problem. Partly this is due the arrival of better weather so that we can get out more, and the same fact means that the garden grows that much more quickly thus needing more of those elusive hours.

I also acquired a new camera which I have been slowly getting to grips with. Although I have been taking photographs now for more years than I care to remember, this new model has far more features than I have been blessed with before and so needs a great deal of going back to photographic basics to find out what they all mean. I have to admit to getting more failures than before, maybe because I now rarely confine myself to “Auto” mode. I have also joined in to one or two photo web sites which have been invaluable in help, advice and encouragement. Photography café is one I can heartily recommend.

All this has meant less time to prepare for posting here, but a recent walk locally resulted in these three pictures.


Burbage Woods 1 


Burbage Woods 3 


Burbage Woods 2 

On the same walk we went to a local country fair just in time to catch the end of the morris dance routine. You may notice that photographers (if indeed I may refer to myself as one) are a bit like fishermen with their tales of "the one that got away".


Morris Dancers 

Su Doku

A few months ago "The Times" newspaper started to publish a new type of puzzle. New that is for this country, as it has been around in Japan since the 1980's. I have to confess to having become somewhat addicted to it in a rather masochistic sort of way. It's not actually something which requires high intellect, which is why it probably suits me, but rather a logical approach and much concentration. It is one of those maddening puzzles that you may think you have solved until almost the end, when the truth dawns and you have to start all over again.

The Times classifies its puzzles from easy to fiendish with various stages in between. Strangely I sometimes seem to have most trouble with the easy ones, probably because you tend to go much more quickly and so make simple mistakes. Each puzzle has only one solution and can always be solved by logical progression and needs no mathematical skill. Guesswork is of no help at all.

The object is to fill a 9 x 9 grid with the numbers 1 to 9 so that every vertical column, every horizontal row and every 3 x 3 mini-box contains each of the digits 1 to 9.

If you feel inclined, you might like to try the following easy example, and then if you get the taste , try the link to the Times below.


Su Doku 

Su Doku - The Times Online

If you really get hooked, you can always enter The Times National Su Doku to be held in October. I think I shall pass on that one.

Tips: you will need a pencil and a rubber. I start at the top and enter every digit that can be contained in each cell. Eventually you can rub out the ones that you don't need. In the above example, the top left cell could only contain 1 or 6. I leave the rest to you.

Tatton Park

On the long drive south from Penrith the other week, we decided to have a break from the traffic for a while and left the motor way just past Manchester and paid a visit to Tatton Park which is owned by the National Trust, but is financed, administered and maintained by Cheshire County Council.


Tatton Hall 

There are in fact a great many attractions at Tatton apart from the house and gardens. As we had only a few hours at our disposal we limited ourselves, after finding some lunch, to just the gardens, and then the house. The Georgian Mansion has sumptuously decorated staterooms and family rooms. Tatton Hall houses collections of Willow furniture, Baccarat glass, paintings by Italian and Dutch masters, Egerton family memorabilia, and porcelain.

Tatton's gardens feature several rare species of plants, shrubs and trees, including rhododendrons, bamboo and pines - the results of 200 years of collection by the Egerton family. There is an 18th centuary Orangery and Fernery comprising part of a collection of the finest glass houses in England. The Fernery was designed in the late 1850's by Joseph Paxton and provided Lord Egerton with a showcase for his collection of Australian and New Zealand Tree Ferns, which is now of national significance. There are Italian and Rose gardens as well as Tatton's unique Japanese garden.


The Japanese Garden 


Statuary in the Japanese Garden 


Bridge in Japanese Garden 


Tatton is famous for its rhododendrons, and if you like showy plants, you will find plenty here. 


More show 


This was taken in one of the hot houses, but I have to confess to not remembering the plant's name. 

The Other Eden (part 2)

Since getting back from our short break “up North” I have been busy trying to catch up with the garden which took the opportunity to go crazy when left to its own devices for a few days, hence the delay in completing my post about Eden. Also, since we got back, the local bird population have decided to use our garden as a depository for all their newly arrived offspring, and where we started off feeding just a few, now there are hoards of them and it’s costing us a fortune.


Juvenile Starling

This is one of the young starlings waiting for mummy to come along and feed it. They are actually quite capable of feeding themselves when no one is looking, but otherwise they expect full waiter service. A lot like human offspring!

While we were away we took a trip into the Lake District. The weather started off very wet, but it produced some very dramatic views as we travelled from Ullswater and up over the Kirkstone Pass. Many of the little streams had become torrents so that there was always something to see. Depending upon whom you believe, Ullswater is between 7.5 and 9 miles in length. There are some very pleasant steamer rides to be had here, but not on a day like this was.


Kirkstone Pass

This view back from the top, looking back towards the lake, was taken at risk of being blown back down the hill, and a couple of minutes outside the car were quite enough.


Kirkstone Pass 

Looking the other way was less inviting, so we travelled on down into Windermere.

Somewhat strangely, the town of Windermere is situated a mile or two away from the lake of the same name, with Bowness-on-Windermere being the place to visit if it is actually the lake that you want to see. They are both next door to each other and have plenty of things of interest for the visitor. Don’t go to Windermere now if it is high speed boating that you want to indulge in as a few weeks ago speedboats were banned and a speed limit imposed, and there is now a much more leisurely air about the place. This I gather seems to have pleased and horrified the locals in about equal measure.

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Revolt over Windermere speed limit

A car ferry still crosses the lake between Ferry Nab and Ferry House providing an attractive and convenient approach to the western side of the lake and the villages of Hawkshead and Sawrey, where you can visit the home of Beatrix Potter at Hill Top. There is also a less historic approach to be found in Bowness at The World of Beatrix Potter Attraction, Windermere

We passed up on this option this time as the weather was still a bit typical of Lake District weather and so we opted to go to Blackwell which is a delightful Arts And Crafts house originally belonging to Sir Edward Holt, a brewer from Manchester who was twice Lord Mayor. It was completed in 1900 and is a house is of international importance, standing at the crossroads of Victorian design and modern architecture of the 20th century. It is all the more remarkable that so much of the original interior decoration has survived intact. I can thoroughly recommend a visit. If you time your visit right, you can get good value meals in their tea room.


Blackwell House 

The house stands in a most imposing situation overlooking Lake Windermere.


Blackwell House - Windermere 

From here we moved on down to the southern lakes area and visited Sizergh Castle & Garden a National Trust property. Its somewhat unusual name is of Scandinavian origin, from their occupation of the area in the 9th century.


Sizergh Castle 

In the twelfth century, King Henry II, one of the most powerful European rulers of his time, regained the northern counties of England. He granted Sizergh and other lands in North and South Westmorland to Gervase Deincourt around 1170 - 1180AD. Sizergh was held in the Deincourt family for several generations until Elizabeth Deincourt, became the sole heiress. Later the estate was conveyed in marriage to her husband, Sir William Strickland in 1239, in whose family it has remained until being handed over to the National Trust in 1950.

The gardens are particularly attractive and I am sure that later in the season they will be even better. The rock garden to the side of the house contains many fine acers giving the garden a Japanese feel.


Sizergh Gardens 


Acer at Sizergh 

The lake to the front of the house was looking a bit bleak, and was in the sole ownership of a pair of swans.


Sizergh Gardens